It’s easy to feel bombarded by the constant cycle of negative news headlines or ‘noise’, which can add to your anxiety about how your investments are doing and uncertainty as to whether your investment strategy is on the right course. It’s important to try and block out this noise which could influence you to make hasty or erratic investment decisions.
Set and revisit your goals
Keeping a record of your reasons for investing can help temper any inclination to hastily change your plans. Revisiting your initial decisions allows you to assess whether your long-term priorities remain the same.
Avoid continuous monitoring
Our mobile phones allow us to keep completely up to date, which is obviously important for things like keeping in touch with family, but when it comes to investing, it’s best to avoid the temptation to set up alert notifications for funds or companies that you are invested in. Warren Buffett had this advice in 2016 after a period of extreme market volatility saying, “Don’t watch the market closely”; advice that still rings true today.
Time in the market
Shutting out the noise to concentrate on the long term, gives your investments a greater chance of yielding positive returns and benefiting from compounding, although there are obviously no guarantees.
The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.
